


Sabotaged

by octobermango (coffeecinnamoncake)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Among Us (Video Game) Setting, Alternate Universe - Space, Astronauts, Bisexual Suki (Avatar), Bittersweet Ending, Character Death, Implied Mai/Suki, Lesbian Mai (Avatar), Lesbian Ty Lee (Avatar), Multi, Murder Mystery, Past Sokka/Yue (Avatar), The Skeld (Among Us)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28431135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeecinnamoncake/pseuds/octobermango
Summary: "Well, it looks like you're a crewmate," Mai said with a small smile on her face as Katara gave a thumbs up. Ty Lee beamed...And that was when the lights started to flicker, before going out entirely. It was pitch black. Ty Lee couldn't see a thing. No one could see a thing. But they could hear, and what they heard was the sound of the vent in the corner of the room, opening with a c r e a c k.-----An Avatar Among us AU (no bending)
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Sabotaged

"Where's your next task, sweetie?" Aang asked. They were in the cafeteria. So far, their journey back from the Polus Outpost had gone well, and everyone was doing their job. Katara was the nurse of the skeld, while Aang was in charge of communication with Mira HQ. They had precious cargo in the form of specimens from Polus, and Aang knew that once they got back home in less than 24 hours, they would do _so_ many amazing things. 

"We both have card swipe in admin, right?" Katara said.

"Yup," Aang replied. In her baggy blue spacesuit, Aang thought his girlfriend was the most beautiful person in the known universe. 

"Aww."

"Wait did I say that out loud?" Aang blushed.

"Yeah Sweetie," Katara said, touching his shoulder warmly, "Should we head to Admin?" Aang nodded. They walked, hand in hand, to the bottom of the cafeteria, through the short hallway, and turned right. But what Aang saw stopped him in his tracks. 

"Sweetie? Is something wrong..." Katara gasped, frozen in place at the horrific sight that stood before them. 

~~~

"Can you hurry up, Zuzu?" Azula tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Zuko to finish calibrating the distributor. 

"We aren't in a rush," Zuko said, purposefully trying to annoy his sister.

"I'm gonna go. I'll leave you to the rats."

"Wait!" Zuko took her arm, "Remember what Uncle said?" Azula rolled her eyes.

"Stick together no matter what," she recited, "He also said that electrical is dangerous and that we should do our tasks there as quickly as possible."

"Whatever..." Just then, someone yelled from across the ship.

"Everyone! Come to Admin NOW!" Zuko and Azula glanced at each other and ran as fast as they could. 

~~~

Soon, everyone was gathered around the admin table, staring at the gruesome, bloody mess that was Princess Yue's body. Sokka couldn't believe how quickly the mood had changed. One minute, he was talking with Suki about all of the things they would do once they got back to Mira.

Now, Sokka was taking his helmet off, and everyone else was doing the same. His eyes clouded with tears. Yue was his ex, and things had been awkward between them, and now... he would never be able to fix things with her. Now, she was lying in a pool of blood, her helmet had fallen off, and her once perfect white hair was stained brown. Aang and Ty Lee were openly sobbing. Suki, Toph, and Katara couldn't bear to look at her. 

"Someone did this," Katara whispered, her voice barely audible, "Someone... killed her."

"Look at this," Azula had been searching through some of the files in admin for the past 10 minutes, "These are instructions, for when alien impostors are found on the ship. They are native to Polus. They often come in pairs..."

"So you're just pretending like none of this happened?!" Toph demanded, "Our friend is dead! And you don't even care!"

"I'm trying to get us out of this!" Azula hissed, "It says here that the impostors will stop at nothing to kill us, and that the only way to stop them is to eject them from the airlock. There are records of them moving through the vents, sabotaging the ship, and-"

"Everyone, stop!" Suki said as the crew started yelling over each other, "We have to calm down. We need to stick together, so that this doesn't happen again." She took a deep breath, trying to hold back tears, "Okay, where was everyone. I was in Navigation. Sokka and Toph were in that area too."

"Aang and I found the body," Katara said, her voice quavering. Aang had his head on her shoulder, tears rolling down his cheeks, "We were in the cafeteria, then we went down to swipe our cards, and..." Everyone nodded. They understood. 

"We were in the upper engine," Mai said, "Ty lee and I."

"And Azula and I were in electrical," Zuko said quietly. There was a long moment of silence.

"Well," Toph said, ending it, "If we're supposed to eject someone, I say we eject Azula." Everyone stared at Toph in horror.

"Why?!" Azula yelled, "Because I'm trying to keep us alive?!" 

"Well, you don't seem to be upset about Yue's death at all."

"Everyone STOP!!!" Katara screamed, "Enough! Let's all just get back to our tasks." 

"When there's a murderer here?! Are you out of your mind?!" it was Sokka, "It could be any of us."

"What about a medbay scan?" Ty Lee asked. Katara shook her head. 

"Only some of us will have it on the Skeld. The rest of us had it on Polus."

"Well, I have a scan," Ty Lee finished, "So you should come watch." 

"I agree with Ty Lee," Mai, who had been silent for so long, finally spoke up, "I bet the impostors can't do scans, so if we watch Ty, then we'll know she's safe." Everyone nodded in agreement. 

"I guess... we should dispose of the body," Sokka said quietly, and only Suki heard him.

"I'm sorry," she said. Sokka wiped away his tears and the two of them carried Yue's lifeless corpse to the airlock. Even when she was still alive, there was a sort of ethereal quality about her, and now, it all seemed like a cruel joke.

~~~

Aang, Katara, Mai, Ty Lee and Toph walked down the hall towards medbay. Ty Lee should've been contemplating the murder of her friend. Well, acquaintance, really. Yue, the untouchable royal ambassador. But instead, Ty Lee was thinking about Mai. She had originally planned on confessing her love for her at Mira HQ. Perhaps on the balcony, near the weather balloons. But now, with people dying. Ty Lee wasn't so sure that she wanted to wait for the perfect romantic moment. Besides, she didn't know if Mai would return her feelings or not, and-

"The scanner should be all ready for you," Katara said as they entered medbay. Ty Lee forced a smile and walked up to the scanner. She took off her helmet (although the impostors could imitate people's faces, so it didn't matter) and hopped up on the scanner. The eerie green light somehow made their situation even creepier. 

"Well, it looks like you're a crewmate," Mai said with a small smile on her face as Katara gave a thumbs up. Ty Lee beamed...

And that was when the lights started to flicker, before going out entirely. It was pitch black. Ty Lee couldn't see a thing. No one could see a thing. But they could hear, and what they heard was the sound of the vent in the corner of the room, opening with a _c r e a c k._

"Mai?!" Ty Lee called.

"Katara?!" Aang said, the panic in his voice was audible. They searched for each other in the darkness, as the shadows folded around them, and in the corner of the room, the vent softly shut. 

~~~

Fixing the lights was what Zuko was meant for. He was the engineer after all. When he was a kid, while Azula was at the front of the ship, shooting asteroids, priming the shields and training to be an artillerist, Zuko was in the back of the ship with his uncle, fixing the engines, the reactor... it was simple work, but it was what Zuko was good at. Azula was the leader, and he was the follower. Still, walking into electrical alone when it was pitch black, was unnerving. He and Azula had been doing tasks in storage, but she must've fallen behind when the lights turned out.

Zuko took out a tiny flashlight and opened the panel. Fixing the lights manually was easy. You just had to flip the five switches. Zuko's hands were shaking as he flipped the first switch. The switches were slick and wet, and drops of water from the ceiling fell with a plop on Zuko's red suit. Despite everything that was happening, he smiled a little bit. It had been a long time since he had seen rain and even this cheap imitation felt, comforting in a way.

 _Focus, Zuko, Focus._ He flipped the next switch, then the next, and the next, his hands shaking even more each time until he dropped the flashlight. 

_Just one more._ He ignored the flashlight and tried to flip the last switch, but it was slippery, and his shaking hands just couldn't get a grip on it. Zuko took a deep breath. 

_They're counting on you._ He flipped the last switch, and the lights began to turn on. He breathed a sigh of relief, and he didn't hear the sound of footsteps coming towards him. 

~~~

Ty Lee was almost positive that she was going to die in medbay. She was almost positive that an alien impostor was going to jump out of the vent and kill her. But instead, the lights simply turned back on. She ran over to where Mai was standing by the hospital beds and hugged her. 

"Katara?!" Aang said.

"I'm right here, Sweetie," Katara said from behind him.

"Oh," Aang laughed, "Now I feel like an idiot."

"Is everyone okay?" Toph asked from the corner of the room. Obviously the darkness didn't affect her. 

"I think so," Katara said, "But who turned the lights on?" And that was when they heard it.

"Everyone come to electrical!" Azula screamed, "Zuko's DEAD!"

~~~

Zuko's body looked different than Yue's. He looked more... peaceful. If it weren't for the awkward angle of his neck, you would assume that he were just in a deep sleep. 

And that somehow made things worse. 

"I can't believe this is happening," Mai said quietly. Mai never cried. Even when things were at their worst, she refused to shed a single tear, and this was no exception, "We _have_ to eject someone, before..." 

"Then we should eject Azula!" Toph said between sobs, "She found the body! No one was with her! Suki and Sokka were near the airlock! The rest of us were in medbay."

"But what about the vent?" Sokka questioned, "What if one of the people in medbay traveled through the vents to electrical?"

"Stop!" Suki said calmly, confidently, "We can't waste our time with what ifs. The facts are that two of our friends are dead. Azula, tell us what happened. Toph can see if she's lying." Everyone nodded. Through all of the chaos and tears, they had forgotten one of Toph's abilities.

"I- I was connecting wires in storage when the lights went out," Azula said. She had taken off her helmet, and her eyes were starting to tear up. Toph had one hand on the ground, and her eyes were closed. They were lucky that Toph, their living lie detector, was still alive, "Zuko ran ahead, to go fix them. I finished the wires and when I got to electrical, the lights were back on and he was dead." 

"Is she lying?" Katara asked. Toph stood up. 

"She is." There was a collective gasp.

"No," Azula said in a raggedy voice, "You know I wouldn't do it. I'm not the impostor I swear!" 

"Guys! We need to calm down!" Ty Lee said, "Come on, this is Azula. This is our friend. She and Zuko may fight sometimes, but that doesn't mean she would kill her own brother!"

"Ty Lee," Katara said, "I don't think that this is Azula anymore."

"Maybe she was in Admin, and not storage, and that's why Toph thinks she's lying!" Ty Lee pleaded. 

"What if we put it to a vote, like the files say," Suki took out a notepad. As the navigator of the ship, she was always prepared, "Everyone write down who you think should get ejected." 

"Guys, I don't think it's Azula," Mai whispered, but she was too quiet. The louder voices won out in the end. When they got the notepad, both Mai and Ty Lee wrote _skip_ , and Azula most likely did the same. Finally, the notepad was handed back to Suki, and everyone crowded around it. Everyone that is, except for Azula. They had relocated to the cafeteria, and now she sat, resigned, near her brother's body. Suki carried Zuko, and Katara and Sokka led Azula to the airlock. Five of the eight people had voted to eject her. 

"It's not me," she kept muttering, "I swear, it isn't me. Toph's the one who's lying, not me." But they didn't listen. Azula knew that they had never liked her anyways. Only Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko trusted her. The door to the airlock slammed shut, and Azula found herself and her brother alone. 

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I shouldn't have stayed behind." And as the other door on the outside of the ship opened, Azula knew that at least she was following one of Uncle Iroh's rules. They were together. If only Zuko had followed the 2nd rule. 

~~~

The remaining seven on the ship sat in the cafeteria in silence. In the center of the table was a big, red button that they used to announce when dinner was happening. Now it would be used to call an emergency meeting.

"Someone needs to take over Zuko's tasks," Katara said quietly, looking at the floor. No one wanted to accept that he was gone. 

"I'll do it," It was Ty Lee who spoke up, "I'll do his tasks."

There was a long silence as Suki handed her Zuko's tablet containing his tasks.

"How long until we reach Mira HQ?" Aang asked.

"Around 12 hours," Suki said immediately, "We just, we just have to survive for that long."

"Do you think that Azula was actually an impostor?" Sokka said after a few minutes. There was another silence.

"I don't know," Aang finally said, "But, what are we going to say to Iroh when we get back." 

"We'll tell him the truth," Toph shrugged, "There's nothing else that we can do."

"Does anyone else have a med scan," Katara asked miserably. There was no response. 

"I-I should go to security, watch the cameras for a while," Mai said.

"I'll come with you," Ty Lee held up Zuko's tablet, "I have to start the reactor."

"If she dies," Sokka said to Mai, "We'll know it's you."

"It isn't me," Mai said, "She'll be fine. I promise." 

~~~

All her life, Mai would watch the cameras. On Mira HQ, there weren't cameras, just Door Logs that showed the general area someone was in. Everyone else hated the door logs, but Mai had mastered them. They lived for a year on Polus, and Mai had spent most of her time there on the cameras. She was the eyes and ears of the outpost. Now she watched the cameras on the Skeld, on her return from Polus, heading back to Mira HQ.

Most of the hallways were empty. Sokka was doing wires outside navigation. Ty Lee had gone to start the reactor a while ago, which was a tedious task. Toph had been in Admin for quite a long time. She had just left and was headed towards storage when Ty Lee walked across the hallway and into Security. 

"Hey Mai," she said, fidgeting nervously. She hadn't bothered to put her helmet back on after the med scan, "Do you think I could ask you something?"

"Of course," Mai forced herself to turn away from the cameras and took her helmet off,"Did you finish starting the reactor." 

"I'm halfway through, but I just," Ty Lee blushed, "This probably isn't the time, but, I don't know if we're gonna make it out of this, and-"

"We'll make it out," Mai said automatically.

"Are you going to listen or not?"

"Right, sorry."

"Anyways" Ty lee tapped her fingers on the desk in the corner of the room. She took a deep breath, "Look, I really like you, like, as more than a friend, so maybe, _if_ we get back to Mira-"

When," Mai said, overcoming the pure shock that had taken over her, and fighting through the blush that was settling on her cheeks, " _When_ we get back to Mira, not if."

" _When_ we get back to Mira," Ty Lee continued, "Would you like to go on a date with me?" Mai smiled, and took her hands.

"I'd love to," she said. Ty Lee grinned. 

"I'm gonna go finish with the reactor," she said softly, before skipping out of security. With a smile still on her face, Mai turned back to the cameras, and what she saw turned that smile into a frown."

Toph was walking out of medbay and into the hallway that had been empty since the last meeting. The last time Mai had seen Toph, she was headed down from admin. Mai had only been talking to Ty Lee for a few moments. There wasn't enough time for Toph to go all the way up to medbay and then walk out again.

 _Unless she had vented. Unless Toph was the impostor._ Toph was blind. She must've not known that the cameras were on. Just as Toph turned the corner, the views of the cameras disappeared, and the security screen instead displayed the message: Comms Disabled. Mai cursed under her breath and tried to move the mouse around, but it did nothing. She had trained for this. She would have to go to communications, which was all the way across the ship, to fix the connection.

Mai felt herself begin to panic as she ran out of Security and into the hallway. She was running past electrical when she realized that she didn't know where Toph had gone. Her stomach filled up with dread as she ran back, towards the reactor. She _had_ to make sure Ty Lee was okay. At the entrance of the room her worst fears were realized.

Standing in front of the glowing blue power source, with her back to Mai, was Toph. Her Lime green suit was stained with blood, and as Toph turned to face her, Mai saw a gaping hole in her chest, revealing a long, sharp, black tongue, that was impaled in the back of a girl in a pink suit. Toph smirked. Mai set her jaw and reached down to get the two knives that were hidden in her boot. She took a step back.

"Where do you think you're going," Toph rushed towards Mai with inhuman speed. When she got close, Mai used the knives to pin her to the wall, feeling a sick sense of satisfaction when one of them pierced the flesh of Toph's shoulder, causing an unearthly howl to erupt from the cavity in her chest. Mai screamed for help, made sure that Toph was securely pinned to the wall, then inched over to where Ty Lee's body was. The impostor's tongue slowly slithered out from where it had been implanted in Ty Lee's back, and when Mai glanced at Toph, she looked just like a normal crewmate.

"Ty?" Mai looked at Ty Lee. There was a massive wound close to her heart. She was still breathing, her chest just barely rising and falling, "Ty I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." She sat down next to her dying friend, and held her hand. Tears sprung to Mai's eyes.

_No. Do not cry. They need you to be strong._

_~~~_

As soon as Aang and Katara heard Mai screaming for help, they ran out of Communications, where they were fixing the sabotage, and towards the back of the ship, where the sound was coming from. Sokka and Suki joined them, and together they stared at the horrifying scene inside the Reactor Room.

"It was Mai," Toph said immediately, from where she was stuck on the wall, "She killed Ty lee right in front of me, then pinned me to the wall."

"What?!" Katara ran over to free Toph and Aang followed.

"Don't," Mai's voice had a deadly edge to it that made them both stop in their tracks. She was hunched over Ty Lee's mutilated body, which had stopped moving awhile ago, "Toph is the impostor. I have all the proof you need on the security footage." Aang, Sokka, Katara and Suki hesitantly walked across the hallway and into security. They played back the footage from before. 

"There," Suki said, pointing to Toph, walking out of medbay, "She must've vented."

"It's the only explanation," Sokka agreed. 

"But what if she isn't the impostor," Katara said, "It's just, Toph's our friend, and we're just going to kill her?"

"That's not Toph anymore," Suki said, "I know it's hard, but it's us, or them." Everyone somewhat reluctantly nodded in agreement. 

"Are you going to eject her?" Mai asked when they got back, "If you don't, then I'll kill her myself." They all knew that Mai wasn't lying. She was on the war path. Toph said nothing as Katara and Sokka lifted her up and carried her to the airlock. A low chuckle escaped her lips, but that was all. 

"Mai?" Suki said gently, touching the girl's shoulder. To Aang's surprise, she didn't recoil, or bat her hand away, "We need to take Ty Lee to the airlock."

"Oh." Mai shifted away from Ty Lee. Her eyes were wide open, glassy and unblinking. Before Aang and Suki took her away, Mai gently closed them. Then she put her head in her hands and sobbed. 

~~~

Sokka and Suki peered down into the vent in the navigation hallway. It was very dark and very small. Too small for a normal human to fit through. 

"She must've vented to Admin when we weren't looking," Suki said, "Then she killed Yue and vented back. She probably did something similar in medbay. She vented to electrical, killed Zuko, and vented back." Sokka paced back and forth. 

"Suki, we _killed_ Azula. She was innocent and we _killed_ her."

"I know," Suki's voice broke, "But there was nothing we could do. She _was_ pretty suspicious."

"But we should've known better," Sokka said, "Azula _always_ acts suspicious." There was the sound of a bell as Suki got a notification on her tablet. 

"Come on," she said, "I want to show you something. We caught the impostor, so we can relax a little." Sokka could tell by the quaver of Suki's voice that she didn't believe in her own words. She was just trying to comfort him. Besides, didn't the files say that the impostors came in pairs?

"Look, Suki said as they reached the huge windows of storage, "We're almost home." Sokka smiled for the first time in awhile. There was earth, sitting like a marble in the middle of an empty void. Earth's surface was uninhabitable, but Sokka swore he could see the towering skyscraper of Mira HQ, way up in the upper atmosphere. 

"Soon, we'll be on the balcony," Suki said with a sad smile, "Watching the weather balloons." Sokka turned away from the window and looked around the empty ship. Half of its inhabitants were dead. Only five of them would get the luxury of returning. But not a moment later, the white lights turned to an eerie shade of red, the alarms started blaring, and Sokka realized that they would be lucky if only half of the crew made it out alive.

"The 02 is sabotaged," he said in disbelief, "Suki, Toph wasn't the only one." 

"We have to fix it!" Suki said frantically. 

"I'll go to 02, you go to Admin," Sokka instructed, trying to suppress the fear that was clawing its way into his heart, the notion that this might be the last time he saw Suki, or any of his friends.

~~~

"It's an 02 sabotage," Aang said. He, along with Katara and Mai, were standing in the upper engine. 

"So Toph wasn't the only one," Mai muttered. 

"We need to fix it," Katara said, "Aang and Mai should go to Admin. I'll go to 02." 

"But-"

"But what, Aang."

"Sweetie, what if you don't come back," Aang looked like he was on the edge of tears. 

"I'll be fine," Katara smiled weakly, then put on her helmet. Mai and Aang did the same, "We don't have much time, so let's go." 

When Aang and Mai got to Admin, Suki was already there, punching numbers into the keypad. 

_That was fast._

"Aang, your handwriting is terrible," she said, holding up the sticky note with the code written on it, "Is this a seven or a one?"

"It's a seven," Aang said, taking a look at the note. His handwriting wasn't _that_ hard to understand, but maybe that was just him. A thought crossed his mind. 

_Suki wasn't stalling, was she? Was Suki the impostor?_ Suki finished with the keypad, and the red lights turned off. 

~~~

The eerie flashing red lights made Sokka's cyan suit take on a green color as he ran through shields, past the vent that led to Admin, and finally into 02. He looked at the sticky note with the code on it, and with shaking hands, he began to punch in the numbers. 

3, 7, 9, 0, 2, 

When Sokka finished, the alarms continued to blare. _Did something happen at Admin?_ Sokka turned away from the keypad, intent on punching in the code in Admin himself. A look of surprise appeared on his face. 

"Hey," he said to the figure before him, "Y-you really snuck up on me there. I thought-" A glint of metal, and Sokka staggered back at the impact of a knife sinking into his chest. His knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. It could've been minutes later, or it could've been seconds. For all he knew, it could've been hours, but the last thing that Sokka heard was someone scream,

"Everyone come to 02. Sokka's dead!"

~~~

Mere moments after Suki fixed the sabotage, and the lights turned normal again, Aang, Mai, and Suki heard Katara yell, "Everyone to 02! Sokka's dead!" Aang felt his stomach sink. Suki stiffened. 

"You know how this looks Katara," Mai said as they crowded around Sokka's body. No one could bare to even look at it. For the entire mission, Sokka had been keeping their spirits up with his dumb jokes and wisecracks; and now...

"It's not me," Katara pleaded, "I walked into 02 and he was there. If you ask me it was Suki."

"You're just trying to shift the blame away from yourself!" Suki yelled. Her hands were shaking, "Aang and Mai were in admin with me." 

"Actually," Aang shifted his feet nervously, "Mai, didn't you find it weird that Suki got to Admin so quickly."

"Exactly!" Katara said, "She must've killed Sokka, then vented to Admin before you guys got there."

"You don't understand!" Suki said, "We were in storage, not navigation. I ran to Admin as fast as I could, and _happened_ to get there before you!"

"Everyone STOP!" Mai, who rarely raised her voice, did so now, and this time, everyone knew to listen to her. She had never been wrong once, during the whole trip, "Aang, I agree that it is a bit odd that Suki got to Admin so quickly, and there was no one to confirm that she was in storage, but Katara is the one who found the body, and she was the only other person who went to 02," Mai turned to Aang, "What do you think." 

"I-I don't know." Aang didn't think that Suki _or_ Katara was the impostor, and he didn't want to end another innocent life. But one of them _had_ to be the killer. Aang just didn't know who. Katara had been with him for the whole trip, but what if she was just biding her time, and building his trust, "I-I think that we should stick together," Aang stuttered, "I don't think that we should eject anyone." 

"Fine Mai said, "Does anyone have tasks left?"

"I have one in the lower engine," Aang replied. As they left 02, Mai pulled him aside.

"I trust your judgement," she said in a low voice, "Neither of us have been with Suki that much, but you've been with Katara the entire time. Have you noticed anything strange about her?"

"No," Aang said nervously, "She seemed fine." _Was she though?_

"Is everything alright, Sweetie," Katara asked, the concern in her voice seemed fake, and overly sweet. 

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Aang said as they reached the engine, "Sweetie, we've almost always just done my tasks, don't _you_ have some left to do?"

"Oh, I just did mine when you weren't looking," Katara said calmly. Suki and Mai looked at Aang with concern as he felt dizzy all of a sudden.

The truth was that Katara had been acting suspicious. He had made excuses of course. _She'll do her tasks after I do mine._ After all, Katara had a caring and generous nature, so she wouldn't mind waiting. But Aang and Katara had traversed all over the ship, and never once, had he seen her do a single task. Katara had barely reacted to Zuko, Ty Lee, and Sokka, her own brother's death, but Aang had told himself that she was just processing her grief internally.

When the lights turned off in Medbay, Aang had stumbled around in the dark until they turned on again, but he couldn't find Katara anywhere, and she hadn't said a word during the blackout. It made Aang think that maybe _Katara_ , not Toph, had vented and killed Zuko. But he put these thoughts away when Toph was proved to be the killer. Katara had defended Toph, but Aang was convinced that she just didn't want to lose another friend.

"Aang, do you need to lie down?" Katara asked, "You look sick." 

"I'm fine," he said hastily, but he wasn't. He had trusted Katara when he shouldn't had trusted anyone. 

"Let's go to Medbay," Suki said, "Aang needs to rest." He saw Katara smirk. 

~~~

Aang had seen four dead bodies, been partially responsible for one innocent and one guilty life, and was 90 percent positive that his girlfriend had been taken over by an alien host. Now he was throwing up in a bucket in medbay. The stress had finally got to him. 

"Aang?" Katara asked. There was no concern in her voice, and she was typing something into her tablet, "What's wrong?"

"Gee, I wonder what could be wrong," Aang said sarcastically. He turned to Mai and Suki, "Guys, I think-" Aang swore he could feel his heart stop as the lights turned red. A second later the alarms started blaring again. It was a reactor sabotage this time. Everyone scrambled to their feet, Aang a little more shakily than the others, causing him to fall behind, and as the others dashed out of Medbay, the door closed right in Aang's face. 

"Hey!" he pounded on the door, but it wouldn't open. It would take a minute for the system to reset and the door to open again. 

"Aang?" It was Katara. He could tell by the receding footsteps that the others were already near the end of the medbay hallway, "Do you need help, _Sweetie_." her voice was sickly sweet.

"Yes, just let me out of here!" 

"If you insist," after a moment, the door slid open and Aang stumbled out. As soon as he did the door slammed closed again, along with the door to the Cafeteria and the door to upper engine. A normal crewmate wouldn't be able to open and close the doors at will. Katara's mouth twisted into a menacing smile. Aang was alone with the last remaining impostor. 

"So it was you," Aang said, trying to stall for time. After a minute, the door to the cafeteria would open automatically, he could call an emergency meeting, and hopefully Mai and Suki could get there before Katara killed him. It was a long shot, but there was nothing else Aang could do. 

"I'm surprised that you didn't figure it out sooner," Katara said, advancing towards him. Aang backed away, "But you were just so convinced that your precious Katara could do no wrong." 

"So you killed Zuko," Aang said, hoping that the fear in his eyes didn't show.

"Yes," Katara- no, the thing that had taken over Katara's body said, "the blind girl was reckless. I was precise, but now there will be no more need to pretend." The red lights continued to flash as Aang watched her stomach twist and contort, eventually tearing apart to reveal a great, gaping mouth,

"It will all be over soon." A sharp black tongue seemed to taste the air, slowly and painstakingly, before lunging towards him at a breakneck speed. Aang dodged to the side, but yelped as the tongue sliced right through his suit's sleeve and drew blood. Before Katara could strike again, Aang darted past her and started banging on the door to the cafeteria, but it was fruitless.

Katara rushed towards him, and Aang saw that her once clear blue eyes had flecks of red in them. He put his hands up in front of his face, but just before Katara reached him, the doors slid open. She hissed as Aang sprinted towards the table in the Cafeteria, slamming his hand on the big red button... nothing happened. And he realized that the reactor was still sabotaged. It would need to get fixed before he could call an emergency meeting. Aang trembled as he kept his hand near the button.

 _He was going to die_. 

~~~

Suki and Mai turned the corner into the upper engine when both doors slid shut. They were trapped in the room until the doors opened. 

"Katara was the last impostor," Suki said with certainty. Mai nodded. 

"That means Aang is alone with her," she said. Suki's eyes widened and she ran over to the door to the medbay hallway.

"Aang!" She screamed, "get out of there!" Mai grabbed her arm and she spun around.

"It's no use," she said. Suki didn't know how Mai managed to be calm in every situation, "We have to fix the reactor or the whole ship goes down!" Suki set her jaw and nodded, knowing that the flashing red lights were a ticking time bomb. She checked the screen on her tablet. They had two minutes until the reactor was destroyed. Suki paced across the room and put her ear to the door, but she couldn't hear anything except for frantic footsteps. 

"There!" Mai said as the door leading to reactor opened. The two of them ran through the hallway and into the room. The reactor, which normally glowed blue, now gave off an eerie red glow. _30 seconds._ Suki ran over to the left side, where there was a fingerprint scanner, and she placed her hand on it. 

"It isn't working!" Mai shouted from the right scanner. 

"Try your other hand!" Mai did this, and with 10 seconds remaining, the sabotage ended. The reactor reverted back to its original state, and the lights turned back to normal. Suki and Mai met in the middle of the room, and to Suki's surprise, Mai ran up and hugged her.

"I'm sorry I doubted you," she said. Both of them breathing heavily, but they didn't have time to catch their breath. Not a second later, an alarm that was a cross between a siren and an air horn resounded across the ship. 

"Emergency meeting," Suki said breathlessly, "Aang must still be alive!" 

~~~

As soon as the sabotage ended, Aang pressed the red button on the table, and a siren sounded. His helmet was cracked, and the wound in his arm had been worse than he'd thought. 

"Enough games," Katara growled, and he realized that this whole time, she had just been toying with him. Aang backed up to the window as Katara advanced towards him. He tried to look into her red and blue eyes as the spike-like tongue prepared to dispatch him, but there was no light, no warmth. So Aang closed his eyes in resignation, accepting his fate.

He flinched as a sickening sound filled the room, but he didn't feel any pain, and there was no blood. Aang hesitantly opened his eyes. And he saw Katara standing rigidly, a look of shock on her face. After a moment, she crumpled to the ground. First, Aang saw the knife in her back. Then, he saw Mai and Suki, standing at the entrance to the cafeteria. Mai was holding two other knives. They rushed towards towards him.

"Are you okay?" Suki asked, "Are you hurt?"

"Did I kill her?" Mai asked quietly. Aang shakily knelt down next to Katara. The red had faded from her eyes and a look of recognition appeared on her face. Then her eyes closed, a tremulous breath escaped her lips, and she was still. No one said a word for awhile afterwards. Suki went to Navigation and adjusted their course. They were almost at the end of their journey. Mai and Aang went to Medbay, and tried to patch up his wound as best they could, though without Katara, their medic, it wouldn't heal perfectly. 

Then the three of them gathered around the storage windows, and stared at the towering skyscrapers of Mira HQ, coming into focus before them. They were home. 

**Author's Note:**

> So... thanks for reading this ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
